..
ENT V
Vol. 3, No. 3 Is sue d by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 799 1/2 Hunter St., Atlanta 14, Ga. Oct., 19;;;-
They Lived In The Counti es
Churches Burned, Nightriders Attack SNCC Staff
In Southwest Georgia Voter Registration Drive
TERRELLANDLEECOUN- ==~~==~~~~~--~----------------------------------------­
TIES, GEORGIA -- SNCC
workers from · North and
South spent a summer here
in these rural counties living and working with the
people to increase voter registration.
For these young students,
, the summer was one of
threats, beatings, jailing-and inspiration.
They worked on SNCC 's
Southwest Georgia vote r
registration project under
the leadership of Charles
Sherrod, a field secretary
who first came to Albany in
October, 1961, and was a
participant in the original
demonstrations which touched off the Albany Movement.
One half of the Southwest
Georgia project was located
in Terrell County -- called
"Terrible Terrell" by local
residents. This county was
the scene of the first prosecution of voting violations ~~~1!1!!
under the Civil Rights Actof
1957.
There Ralph Allen, a white
student from Massachusetts,
was arrested for vagrancy JOINING HANDS IN PRAYER Albany citizensandSNCCvoter registration workers stand
along with Sherrod when the at smoking ruins of Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Sasser, Ga. hours after it was set on
two brought a group of Ne- fire. SNCC workers, from left to right: Jack Chatfield, Ralph Allen (fourth from left),
groes to the Terrell County and Prathia Hall (extreme right).
Courthouse to register.
1-------------r------------"~"""-----------Allen and Joseph Pitts, a living like they have for the whites and police officials sit-in.
young man from Albany, last hundred years."
who said they would "throw
For weeksthestudentsdewere beaten by whites as they
her in the swamp." She and pended on cooperation with
In Lee County, a group of Joan Maxwell were stopped 1oc al Negroes m
· ord er to
went to speak to Negroes in
Dawson, Ga. about register- young women lived and work- numerous times by police eat. At times they picked
ing. Allen was unable to se;.. ed. They were Penny Patch, and intimidated in the midst squash and cotton to earn
cure warrants from police a white student from Swarth- of their canvassing work. money for foo d • T hey paint. authorities in order to pro- more College, Kathleen Con- Peggy Dammond reported e d houses an d ran erran ds.
secute his assailants.
well, a Skidmore College threats to bomb the home in
They wrote up a special
On July 27, as Sherrod and student, Peggy Dammond, which she and other girls issue of The Student Voice
, other SNCC workers held a now at Boston University, were living.
for distribution .in the AlPrathia Hall, a theology stub
T
11 L
meeting at Mt. Olive Baptist dent
p
·
h
1
from Philadelphia, and
Miss ate ater attempt- any- erre - ee commuChurch in Sasser, Ga., Ter- J oan Maxwell, a student from ed to register at Alb any State nities
in
which
h they describd th
rell County Sheriff z. T • Albany, Ga.
College . ( a predominantly e "Weirdp1ig t:
Mathews entered with
e f o not have the money
They canvassed door-to- Negro school) but was reseveral gun-toting, swearing door, spoke to local citizens f use d b ecause of prevwus
.
to pay Wor gas or wear and
deputies and threatened the urging them to register, took civil rights arrests. She had tear.
e can see no other
crowd. In a front-page story, them to the county court- b een arreste d m
. Alb any, Ga. way out than tob attempt to
. New York TIMES reporter h
raise money
y washing
. h es, f1 oors, an d
Claude Sitton quoted the ouse, and had weekly meet- when an interracial group cars, d1s
churches.
I attempted to receive ser- w1·ndows, cutt·n
Sheriff as saying, "We want ings.in
M1ss county
1 g grass, or
Patch was threaten- vice at Albany's Holiday Inn,
our colored people to go on ed several times by local and once in Maryland on a
Continued on page 2
Page 2
The Student Voice
Southwest Georgia
Continued from page 1
any other chore around the
house. We do not havemoney
for t r a n s p o r tat io n in
gene r al, into ana trom thes e
counties. Then there is the
problem of room and board
for about twelve people as
the summer progresses.
"But then, problems are
to be solved. W-e ask for
your prayers and a strong
c o n v i c t ion to act as a
Christian must. We are not
supermen. We are only young
people with a determination
to be FREE and to be FREE
NOW!"
In
August, four Negro
Churches in the area were
burned to the ground, including the Mt. Olive Church in
Sasser. SNCC pledged aid in
rebuilding the churches, and
donated a tent which was used
for meetings in place of the
destroyed buildings.
PRATHIA HALL (left), points to bullet holes in front
screen door of Mrs. Carolyn Daniels' home, where shooting occurred in Terrell County. At right, Jack Chatfield
(foreground) displays bandaged arm. Sitting next to him
is Chris Allen, a student from Oxford, England, who was
also grazed by bullets.
At the end of the month
and in early September,
nightriders shot into the
homes of those involved in
the voter registration drive.
James Mays, a Lee County
teacher who had been fired
from his job for his partic ipation in the voter re-
gist ration drive, reported 24
bullet holes in his house.
Jack Chatfield, a white student from Connecticut, was
shot twice in the arm. Christopher Allen, a student from
Oxford, England, and Prathia
Hall were botb grazed by the
bullets.
Registration Efforts In Mississippi
Continue Despite Violence And Terror
CLE VELAND, MISSISSIPPIA wave of terror has swept
Mississippi in the wake of
Negro citizens' attempts to
register to vote.
Robert Moses, field
secretary for the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, reported that
voter registration drives
were taking place in Ruleville, Cleveland, Greenwood,
Liberty, and other strongholds of segregation.
. And in these places, attempts to register were being greeted by violence.
On August 17, Samuel
Block, Luvaghn Brown, and
Lawrence Guyot. -- all field
secretaries for SNCC --had
to flee over the roof of their
Office when a crowd of white
men, armed with guns and
r opes, surrounded the building. Calls were made to the
F.B.I. but no agent appear-
E:d.
· · Two young Negro girls,
both students at Jackson
State College, were shot by
nlghtriders in Ruleville as
tbey sat in the home of Mr.
and Mrs. Sisson, both prominent in the registration
drive, on Sept. 10.
October, 1962
--------~---------~--------------~---
Both were taken to the
h ospital, one reported in
critical condition from head
wounds.
Moses rep o r t e d that
economic reprisals had begun against N e g r o registrants in R u 1 e vi ll e. Two
cleaning stores operated by
Negroes were closed down
for alleged "building viola-:tions." Seven others have
lost their jobs.
Ruleville is in Sunflower
County home of Senator
James 0. Eastland, chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee. The county has a
Negro voting age population
of 13, 524 (out of a total of 22,
309) and has 161 Negroes registered to vote.
Moses and others were
arrested in Indian o 1 a,
Mississippi at the end of
August for "distributin~
handbills without a license'
when they were publicizing
a voter registration meeting
that evening. All were released on bond.
The Chief of Police of
Indianola told James Forman, SNCC executive secretary, and James Bevel, of
the Southern Christian Lead-
ership Conference, that " We
_don't need no outside agitators coming in here, stirring
up the people, and confusin,g
their minds so that they can t
think straight."
An unidentified Negro man
was killed in Goodman on
Sept. 10 and found in the Big
Black River four days later
in a cloth sack weighted
down with 100 pounds of
rock. He was never identified and buried in Potter's
Field •
The murder occured 45
miles south of Greenwood>
and near the Tallahatchee
River where Emmett Till's
body was found in 1956.
Though no evidence was
found that the murder was
part of retaliation against
the registration drive, it was
felt that this contributed to
the atmosphere of terror
pervading the state. Holmes
County, where Goodman is
located, has a Negro voting
age population of 64.7% of
the total and yet only 41
Negroes are registered to
vote.
Forman said, after the
murder, "This is another
But local Negroes and the
SNCC wor kers who remained at the end of the summer
vowed to continue the drive
despite the terror and the
intimidation.
Sher rod commented, "We
met in a tent on ground which
has been cleared off for the
rebuilding of the church. We
had about fifty people from
Al bany. Six months ago,
m aybe less or mor e, you
coul dn't have paid these
people of Albany enough to
c ome to Dawson, Sasser, or
anywhere else in Terrell
County.
"But something has happened here in Southwest
Georgia which has a good
chance of becoming the pattern for our grand strategy
in the South. And so we go
about our way feeling in the
darkness for the best way,
always to curtailed by lack
of funds. And the worl d
listens and looks on, wonder ing."
instance of lawlessness designed to protect the segregated power structure and to
·intimidate voter registration
workers
and potential
voters."
CBS presented a network
program on the Mississippi
voter registration efforts on
Sept. 26 entitled "Mississippi
and the 15th Amendment."
Moses, who aided the CBS
teams in the production of the
program, and other SNCC
field secretaries, we r e
shown accompanying registrants to local courthouses. ·
Despite the attacks on voters and registration workers, efforts to register Negroes in the State of Mississippi were not halting and
would continue.
Talladega lniundion
Hearing Set For Oct. 8
TALLADEGA, ALA., -Hearings begin here Oct 8 to
determine .whether a temf.Orary injunction prohibiting
'illegal"
demonstrations
issued last April 28 will become permanent.
A battery of seven lawyers
will defend those named in
the injunction, a list which
includes Robert Zellner,
SNCC field secretary, Carl
Braden, field secretary for
the Southern Conference
Educational Fund, the Talladega College student body
and faculty, and others.
October, 1962
Page 3
The Student Voice
More Than A Documentary
Freedom In The Air "An Inspiring Album," Says Chronicle
FREEDOM IN THE AIR is the name of a documentary
album, produced by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, which tells the story of Albany, Georgia in the
voices and songs of the participants themselves.
The San Francisco Chronicle of Sept, 23 called it an
"inspiring album," and the Chronicle reviewer went on to
say:
"I know of no more moving statement of the situation in
Albany, in all its horror and its glory, available today than
this album produced by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee,"
But FREEDOM IN THE AIR is even more than a documentary, even more than a living document to the faith and
courage of the Negro citizens in Albany, Georgia, It represents to us the means by which we will be able to continue
our program in the South,
As you have read in this special STUDENT VOICE, we
are engaged in voter registration and direct action programs in the hard-core areas of the Deep South, where
fear and terror are real, and in places like Maryland and
Southern illinois, where the oppression is just as real.
Our field secretaries do not receive "salaries," They
get "subsistence" funds, which range from $40 per week
to $15 -- when this is available,
They have picked squash, cotton, washed windows and
painted houses -- not only to be good citizens, but to eat,
We are not asking for munificent funds for lavish equipment: we a re asking for funds to feed and clothe those
students who believe in mankind's best dreams enough to
risk their lives every day.
As you have seen on these pages, our field secretaries
have been beaten, jailed, threatened, stabbed, intimidated,
shot at - - and some have had to flee their own offices to
avoid being lynched,
The Georgia churches they met in were burned down, one
by one, so they are now meeting in a tent 0n the rubble
where the buildings once stood,
They will continue to work to change the South, so that
in tum the whole country may be changed,
But, they need your help,
FREEDOM IN THE AIR, a SNCC documentary, with original idea and field work by Guy Carawan, and produced by
Carawan and Alan Lomax, can be obtained for a minimum
contribution of $3.98.
Each contribution entitles you to a subscription to THE
STUDENT VOICE, which tells of our work in the South and
the work of other student and action groups,
We are asking you to help us, not for us, or for you, not
only for today-- but fortommorow, and future tomorrows,
so that all of humankind can walk free, stand upright, and
live the way huwan beings CAN live,
FREEDOM IN THE AIR ~;E.~
ALBANY, GEORGIA 19~~···
docu:ntary
featuring "The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest"
ORIGINAL IDEA L fiUD WORK - GUY CARAWAN
Rev. Ben Gay
1962
PROOUCID BY AlAN LOMAX &. GUY CARAWAN
"-.. '
I
).
DOLLARS F OR DEMOCRAC Y
P L E DGE CARD
NAME, ___________________________________
F REEDOM IN THE AIR
A SNCC Documentary, $4 Donation
NAME _____________________________________
CITY________________ STATE _ _ _ __
TELEPHONE ___________________
1 Pledge to Contribute (Enter Amount or Circle One)
$
$1 (
) $5 (
) $20 (
) $50 (
) $100(
)
permonth (
) quarterly (
) to the Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee to help further the
cause of freedom in the South,
Record of payment:
Month
Date
Amount
CITY_____________ STATE ________________
I enclose $
for
album(s) of FREEDOM
IN THE AIR, I understand that purchase of this album entitles me to a subscription to the STUDENT VOICE.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee - 7991/2 Hunter Street, N. W., Atlanta 14, Georgia,
This ·is a high fidelity long playing record processed with the
most advanced of electronic engineering techniques. It is playable
with any cartridgf', monaural or sterophonic.
Manufactured by
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, 135 Auburn Ave. N.E.
Atlanta 3, Ga.
Page 4
October, 1962
The Student Voice
Demonstrators Tear Gassed, But
Cairo Nonviolent Freedom Committee
Wins Opening Of Public Facilities In City
CAIRO, ILLINOIS--Police
sprayed tear gas into a crowd
of 200 Negro citizens here
on Sept. 27 who were protesting three successive
days of arrests of young
people
picketing Banks'
Wondermarket
for
fair
!employment.
' About 58 demonstrators
were arrested for "parading without a license.' Seven
of these remained in jail
after demonstrations on
Sept. 24-27. One of these,
a young white man, Jim
Peake, a paraplegic in a '
,wheel chair, went on a hunger
strike to protest the arrests.
This incident was the
latest in a civil rights battle
here which began last June testers and several have
after the Student Nonviolent been beaten.
Coordinating
Committee
On June 22, Mary McColvoted to make the elimin- lum, field secretary for the
ation of segregation in Sou- Student Nonviolent Coordithern lllinoisaSummerPro- nating Committee, went with
ject. Early in the spring, a group of Negro high school
four SNCC staff members students to get service at
were denied service in Mack's Barbecue, a local
Southern Illinois enroute to restaurant. When an angry
1 onlooker threatened a NeChicago.
Demonstrations have oc- . gro youth, Miss McCollum,
curred steadily since June. tried to intervene and was
At least 42 students were slashed on the thigh. Sherearrested
throughout the ceived twelve stitches.
summer, and all publicfaciThe
Cairo Nonviolent
lities opened to the entire Freedom Committee tested
public.
restaurants, the swimming
Yet in the :past weeks of pool, a local bowling alley
demonstrations water has and roller rink.
been sprayed on the proFor several weeks the
.J..._ _..;;_.....;,_ _ _ _.....;._.., CNFC kept up picket lines
at the T-Wood Roller Bowl
THIS SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE STUDENT VOICE
and several were arrested
gives a brief summary of events which occurred
there. The rink finally
during the summer. We have been unable to come
closed.
out with a regular monthly issue since June because
of lack of funds. In order to come out on a monthly
Trials for these arrested
basis, we need your contributions, which also entitle
during the summer were
you to a subscription to THE STUDENT VOICE.
supposed to have taken place
Please send your donations to SNCC, 799 1/2 Hunter
on August 31 but were then
Street, N. W., Atlanta 14, Georgia.
continued indefinitely.
NOTE: Voter Registration efforts of the Student
A week later, the roller
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee were promirink opened to all customers,
nently featured in the lead article of the Sept. 7
regardless of race.
SATURDAY EVENING POST. We urge that you obIn August, two N e g r o
tain a copy.
juveniles who had taken part
in demonstrations here and
t-------;;...___
t-8L "ON 4!WJad
D!&.!0a9 'DJUD14Y
OIYd
a&o410d ·s •n
aJDll '11"8
,/i ."i:t::=IW/1
MARY McCOLLUM, aformer student at Southern lllinois University, who worked
as a SNCC field secretary
with the Cairo committee
this summer.
therefore
had
allegedly
"violated parole," were im-·
prisoned in state reformatories.
Joyce Gilkey, a 16-year
old, was handcuffed and taken
to Geneva State Reformatory. For 24 hours her
whereabout were unknown.
The other teenager, Ernest
Williams, 19, was held in
Joliet Reformatory after he
took part in demonstrations
at Mack's Barbecue.
Observers here reported
to SNCC that the summer
had been one of defeats and
victories. While demonstrators had been tear gassed,
all facilities in Cairo had
opened their doors to everyone rega1:dless of race.
Dll.1089 1 tl DIUDIIY
. "M"N 1188.115 .ltiURH o/l66L